EghtesadOnline: Over 1,000 hectares of greenhouses have been established across Iran since the beginning of the current fiscal that ends in March, says the head of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Greenhouse, Medicinal Plants and Edible Mushroom Affairs Bureau, Gholamreza Taqavi, adding that an additional 350 hectares are expected to come on stream by the yearend.

“Close to 30 trillion rials ($665 million) worth of investment were made in these projects,” the official was quoted by IRNA as saying.

He noted that over 70% of the area under greenhouse cultivation is dedicated to growing vegetables, according to Financial Tribune.

“Greenhouses have generated an estimated 120,000 direct and more than 350,000 indirect jobs.”

The area under greenhouse cultivation presently spans 12,157 hectares, which is 38% more compared to when President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, Valiollah Bani-Ameri, head of the Greenhouse Expansion Project undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture said in November.

He said the ministry plans to increase the area to more than 48,000 hectares by 2025. According to Bani-Ameri, the ministry expects to produce 21 million tons of agricultural products via greenhouses per year.

Iran ranks second globally in the expansion of greenhouse area after Mexico.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to transfer all vegetable farms to greenhouses within 10 years to save 10 billion cubic meters of water per year.